Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Disney: Frozen in my tracks.

~Frozen and I~

At the Frozen Pavilion at the Disney Hollywood Studios, Fl.

Once upon a time, I was a little girl who collected cat figurines. Then I got into Japanese anime and started a Sailor Moon collection. Then, started to collect other things like Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, Rainbow Bright, Coraline, Tokidoki and Wonder Woman. All these side collections were small and manageable so I felt it was all under control. My doom was Rapunzel. Even though I am an 80s/90s child who grew up watching all the classic Disney animated movies, I was never a die hard fan or a collector. But now it's official: I can now call myself a Disney collector too.

For a long time I was VERY judgmental about anyone who ever-so-proudly wore a DISNEY COLLECTOR badge everywhere they went. I was never mean to anyone, but just disagreed with it. How can I explain? Like, I felt like telling them "Oh hey, congratulations on dedicating your life and money to those overexposed mainstream children's entertainment films that just landed on your lap and has been shoved up out mouths for years!". With all this globaliztion thing going on EVERYONE ON THE PLANET grew up with Disney movies, so to say "I collect Disney", to me used to mean "I don't dig much. I consume what's given to me", which resulted in me rolling my eyes, because as an early 90s anime fan, I really had to dig deep, fight hard and go beyond to get my hands on anime and specially all that hard-to-find Japanese merch, y'know what I mean? Also, it doesn't help that the standard issue birthday theme for girls parties since forever has been Disney princesses, so I grew tired of watching Belle birthday hats, Ariel piñatas, Cinderella cakes and Aurora dresses being constantly overused everywhere. It had become cliché and suuuper tacky in my mind.

Yes, I too grew up on Disney (The Rescuers, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King and Aladdin were my jams, yo!) so of course way deep down I do have a soft spot for these movies, but I never really wanted to collect them.

I'm not going to go into what Disney's Rapunzel did to me. To this day, I'm STILL pretty obsessed with her and have even started spreading my search radius to include UK dolls as well as French an Japanese harder to find park collectibles. Damn it. The reason I started collecting Rapunzel is because of her "magical girl" qualities. I love female protagonists who have some kind of supernatural power, and in Rapunzel's case (specifically the Disney version) it's her ability to heal and resuscitation powers.

It was actually quite exciting when they announced an "Ice Queen" Disney movie because we all knew Disney himself had been working on this project before passing and it's been on the drafting board for decades. I was interested because from the get-go we knew there was a girl involved that had magical powers. In November 2013, they released their first set of Limited Edition Frozen dolls before the movie even came out, so I decided to get them even if I didn't know the characters just yet. I was lucky enough to score what are now some of the most sought after dolls in Disneyana: LE SQ Elsa and Coronation Anna.

And of course immediately proceeded to display them both on my tiny shelf XD

Unfortunately, the movie wasn't exactly my cup of tea. Not that the movie is bad per-se (although I do think it has some flaws), but I kind of hoped the story would focus on the Ice Queen herself, not her little sister's weird/dumb adventures. It would've been great to see more of what she did behind those closed doors for all those years. Hell, I would've gone way darker and had Elsa accidentally kill her parents which would give her a stronger reason for her to shut out Anna. I get the sister love point they were trying to make, I just would've liked to have seen more of Elsa. They did a great character development and costume designs though, so I did like it but overall my attention was always on Elsa... just like everyone else xD!

Anyway, since I had already dug myself into a deep deep Rapunzel hole with no visible way out, I decided to go about collecting Frozen in a very cautious manner because with anything Disney, it's a dangerous slippery slope. I love displayable objects, so my main focus would be dolls and figurines. The plan was only to get the first edition classic dolls, Limited Edition dolls and a couple of figurines here and there. That was my self-imposed limit and I must stick to it.

My fist order was the first edition Classic doll (not pictured), then the Deluxe Fashion set, then the couple set and singing Elsa doll. No single Anna dolls for me as she isn't a character I'm interested in. According to my plan, I was halfway done with my collection!

But then, Disney released a second line of Limited Edition Frozen dolls. I decided to only order Elsa this time around (I still had my Coronation Anna, but I was feeling pretty detached from her already). Once I received her and opened the box, I had an unexpected reaction: To my own immense surprise, I FREAKIN' LOVED Coronation Elsa more than SQ Elsa! There's just something so intriguing about her. The colors are so regal and she's so poised. I absolutely adore this one! It doesn't mean I don't like SQ Elsa, she's just not my fave.

I displayed my both Elsas together ^_^!!

At this point we could say I was about 98% complete from my goal. I already had all the first edition dolls and LEs so, I was done right?----WRONG. Haahaha! I had an upcoming trip to Japan and needed funds, so I sold my Coronation Anna and headed to the Land of the Rising Sun.

And what did I find?

I found Japan was barely beginning their Frozen obsession phase! OMG here we go again! hahaha. "Let it Go" was playing EVERYWHERE and I managed to learn most of the song in Japanese just listening to it at random places. Lawl. I still tried to keep my "Frozen" shopping to a minimum (can't say the same about Rapunzel and Sailor Moon tho xD), and only bought a couple of minor things. It was very interesting to live through this phase with my friend Sarah who is a Frozenholic! I had an amazing time with her going up and down Tokyo looking for collectibles ^^!! Like I said, I didn't buy much, but here are some cuties I found along the way:

When I got home from Japan near Christmas time, I got an amazing gift from my very good friend Brooke to add to my Elsa collection! I didn't have anything like this and I'm so happy because this art is gorgeous *_*! Super pretty!!

So, now I should have my collection complete, right? WRONG AGAIN.

Earlier this year it was announced that the before the live action Cinderella movie, a small Frozen short animated film called "Frozen Fever" would be shown. I actually really enjoyed it! It was really really cute and even exciting to see the girls again.

Around the same time, they announced yet another release of Limited Edition Frozen dolls. At the time we all thought they might be Frozen Fever dolls (Since Rapunzel got her Wedding LE doll when her short came out), but they turned out to be also based off Frozen. Not my favorite collectibles, but I definitely wanted to add teenage Elsa to my collection. At the Disney store, I also saw the Frozen Fever dolls which I just HAD to buy because those flowery dresses are just the cutest! Once I was at the register ready to pay for my Elsa LE, the cashier insisted that I take all three dolls (Anna and Kristoff too) as they were all very Limited and I needed them for my collection. I listened to her although I shouldn't have. I only wanted Elsa and wound up with the whole gang! Hahahaha. They are amazing dolls nonetheless and I do enjoy looking at them! I've bought a couple of other things here and there, including the Grand Jester Elsa bust and the Japanese Snow Queen Elsa Nendroid (on its way to me now) and some stationery items.

Ok, so now is my collection complete?!

I'd say MAYBE. I definitely see the need to cut back on collectibles since Disneyana is a bottomless money pit, but if I find a piece that really calls my name, I might get it. Honestly though, I really want keep this a small, well-curated collection and I'm loving it so far. The finishing touch would be a very cool light-up castle to display the Nendroid, but I'm in no hurry for that.

In conclusion, I started a new collection but I'm keeping in under control! It's fun when you're not anxious about missing stuff all the time. Yay!

I'll post more pics if there are updates. Till then, CHILL OUT! :D

UPDATE: I may have found a good home for Kristoff where he'll actually be loved more! So excited to get him to his new home ^^!!

UPDATE 2: I found the perfect Frozen light-up/singing ice castle to fit my Nendroid Elsa and it's PERFECT!!! I'm 99% done with my Frozen collection. The only thing I would add to it is a Frozen Fever LE Elsa doll, if they ever produce one. Hehehe.